MOVIE REVIEW: Ai Weiwei's story isn't dull, but this film is

Friday

Jul 4, 2014 at 8:00 AM

Filmaker Andreas Johnsen' documentary about Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei is full of distractions.

By Al AlexanderFor The Patriot Ledger

Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei is a lot of things: Artist, activist, father, son. What he’s not, is dull. But you’d never know it judging by “Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case,” Andreas Johnsen’s somnambulant take on his subject’s Sisyphean fight for human rights. A weak little sister of 2012’s acclaimed “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,” “The Fake Case” picks up exactly where Alison Klayman’s award-winning flick left off: with Ai’s return home after spending 81 days in solitary confinement for alleged crimes against the state.

On probation and under house arrest with more than a dozen surveillance cameras chronicling his every move, Ai proves a pillar of strength, refusing to back off his anti-communist rants despite knowing the next word he says might buy him either a ticket back to jail or, worse, a death sentence. He is nothing short of an inspiration, displaying determination as steadfast as his devilish sense of humor. But Johnsen isn’t satisfied with letting Ai’s story unfold without adornment. So he induces numerous pretensions that aim to enhance but merely distract. Like useless shots of Ai sleeping (no doubt while watching rushes of “The Fake Case”) and strolling through his garden with his adorable toddler son, Ai Lao. They reek of staginess, as does the moment when Ai’s studio courtyard begins to rapidly fill with 100-yuan bills, allegedly tossed over a 12-foot wall by hundreds of supporters seeking to help pay their hero’s trumped-up “tax debt.” It’s all just a lot of excess fat, inserted to help bide time while waiting for the rare occasion when something real or moving occurs, like Ai’s wrenching talk with his mother about how she and Ai’s late father were also harassed by the government in the far more dangerous 1950s. Or, when Ai and his driver, Xiao Pang (also considered a state’s enemy), hilariously turn the tails on their surveillers by chasing them through the streets of Beijing instead of the other way around. But given Ai’s understandable reluctance to talk and Johnsen’s fear of covering much the same ground as “Never Sorry,” the filmmakers likely found themselves short of enough substantive footage to fill an entire 80-minute movie. Thus forcing them to do a lot of padding, so much so, that “The Fake Case” feels 30 minutes longer than it is.

Still, Johnsen more than fulfills his goal of getting his audience stirred up over the government’s persistent harassment of an artist who just a few years earlier was considered a national hero for designing The Bird’s Nest, the gorgeous, innovative stadium that served as the main stage for the 2008 Summer Olympics. My, how things have changed since. Apparently, the commie powers don’t cotton to Ai constantly criticizing them in his Internet blog and in his art, including his latest exhibit, a series of dioramas depicting the inhuman conditions he endured while imprisoned for several months on bogus charges, including tax evasion. It’s the latter that Ai remains accused of during the weeks Johnsen was filming, a crime in which the government falsely claims Ai owes the state 250 million yuan, which his supporters prove all too willing to help him pay by donating more than three times that amount through the mail and the aforementioned bill toss. But don’t expect that “ransom” (Ai deftly equates his harassers with “kidnappers”) to set him free and clear. For nothing will convince Ai to acquiesce to the state’s threats, because in his eyes, if you keep your mouth shut, you’re already dead.

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